Fall Away
by knightshade
Summary: SG1 gets trapped on a planet suffering an Ebola like plague. Will they be able to get home before they come down with the disease? Apocafic
1. Chapter 1

Title: Fall Away  
Author: knightshade  
Rating: PG-13 for slight gruesomeness and the occasional swearing

Pairing: Mostly Gen. Shades of Jack/Sam, but not more than UST

Warnings: Apocafic. It's a blood bath, in more ways than one. There will be character death.

Words: Approximately 21,500

Spoilers: Up to and including mid Season 7.

Prompt: Trapped off world, apocafic, any pairing. One team member goes insane, quietly or not quietly, but definitely with impact. Listen to Fuel – Hemorrhage (In My Hands) at time or two to find the mood (preferably dark)

Summary: SG-1 is trapped on a planet suffering an Ebola-like plague. Will they be able to get home before they come down with the disease?

Disclaimer: I don't own them. See MGM, Gekko, and Double Secret Productions, among others. This was just for fun (I have a warped concept of that term, admittedly), and no money was made.

Notes: This was written for ApocalypseKree. Thank you so much to Moonbeam for the quick beta. Thank you as well to naushika, sjhwtolerance, and auroranovarum for help with research.

This takes place mid season 7 at some point before _Heros_

**Fall Away**

A lyric circled Jack's head. Some half remembered fragment from some half forgotten song from a destroyed and likely to be completely forgotten world.

At least there was something to keep him company.

He sat huddled at the entrance to the cave under the rocky overhang, trying to keep warm and dry as the rain drizzled around him. His hands were wrapped around his knees, his body shaking with cold, his hair dirty and matted to his head.

He had lost his team, lost his planet, lost all hope. He had nothing left but this God forsaken place. He had nothing left to do but wait for it all to end.

---

This planet was going from bad to worse faster than it took Jack to get bored at a briefing. At first it had seemed promising -- a pre-industrial society not far off from late nineteenth century Earth, with villages organized into protectorates. Jack had been impressed with the relative sophistication of the inhabitants and there seemed to be a general sense of cooperation between the various groups. That in and of itself should have sent Jack's Spidey-Sense tingling. He should have realized that whole planets don't just get along. At least not unless they're facing some greater threat.

Funny how in all their meetings with the local inhabitants no one bothered to mention the wee little _plague _that resurfaced every few years. At least not until two farmers from the outskirts of the village stumbled into the town square, bleeding from their noses and mouths.

Carter called it hemorrhagic some such. The word bandied about that caught Jack's attention was Ebola. This alien variety of the disease had the lovely side effect of driving the victim insane before killing him. As if Ebola needed to be any worse.

So here they were back at the gate, wondering if they should go through or not. Carter figured they could be quarantined while Doctor Fraiser figured out which of them was going to bleed to death out of their eye sockets. Oh yes, these were the days that Jack kicked himself for not insisting that he didn't know anyone named Hammond and was perfectly happy to stay retired.

The gate sat in a sculpture garden of all things. It was nestled between a shiny gray tree, its metallic branches twisting skyward, and a metal-framed man with his hat tipped. Carter approached the DHD and began the dialing sequence. The gate began to spin, locking in the sequence. The chevrons glowed. The gate stopped moving.

And then nothing.

No kawoosh, no puddle, no nothing.

"Wrong number, Carter?" Jack asked, his head cocked.

She glanced down at the DHD as Daniel moved in to peer over her shoulder. "No, this is the correct sequence for Earth."

They all glanced up at the still ring, the chevrons still glowing. After a minute the lights went out and Daniel tried dialing again only to get the same result.

Yep, this planet just kept getting better and better. Especially now that they were stuck there. "Ideas, anyone?"

"Well, sir, its possible there's been a malfunction with the gate on Earth."

That brought an uncomfortable silence to the group.

"Or perhaps one of our favorite system lords is dialing in?" Daniel suggested.

"Could it be a problem on this end?" Jack asked staring down at the DHD.

"Not likely, sir. We've only seen this sort of behavior when the gate on the other end isn't responding. Either because of a malfunction, or because there's a second gate like we found in Antarctica, or..."

She trailed off and looked up at him, eyes showing the barest hints of fear.

"Or?" he prompted.

"Or if it's been buried or destroyed," she finished softly.

Jack shook his head. He wasn't ready to consider that option. "Okay. What about the Alpha Site?"

"Sir, the Alpha Site isn't equipped to handle a full quarantine situation. We've all been exposed to a strain of hemorrhagic fever. We can't go there."

"Okay, but we can make contact. Maybe they know what's going on," Daniel suggested.

Carter nodded and then began punching the coordinates for the Alpha Site. This time the gate behaved as expected and after it stopped turning, they were looking into the rippling blue surface of the event horizon. Jack hit the transmit button on his radio. "Alpha Site, this is Colonel Jack O'Neill of SG-1. Come in."

"Col. O'Neill, this is Alpha Site reading you loud and clear," came a crackly voice in reply.

"Hey, you guys having any trouble reaching Earth?"

"That's affirmative, Colonel. We lost contact four hours ago."

"Glad to hear they aren't just screening our calls."

"No, sir. They appear to be down."

"But you don't have any idea why?"

"I'm afraid not. We lost contact and haven't heard anything specific from the other off-world teams who've dialed in to us."

Jack let out a sigh and glanced around at the rest of his team. Looks like they were going to be stuck for a while.

"Sir, if you want to transmit your IDC, you're welcomed to return here to wait."

"Negative, Alpha Site. We've been exposed to a disease. We need the SGC's quarantine facilities."

"Roger, SG-1. Is there anything we can do?"

"I'm afraid not. Just, uh, if you get through to Earth, give us a call, huh?"

"You got it, sir. We're dialing them every hour. We'll let you know when we hear something."

"Oh, and if you could spare some supplies, we'd appreciate it."

"Sure thing. We'll put together a couple of packs and dial you in two hours."

"Thanks. Colonel O'Neill out."

Jack released the transmit button, feeling alone and vaguely worried about the SGC. It certainly wouldn't be the first time there were gate problems, but the timing was clearly a gift from Murphy.

"Well, kids, I guess we wait things out here," he said, slinging his pack over his shoulder. "Let's find somewhere to bed down."

"We could go back to town," Daniel suggested.

"I'd rather keep our exposure to a minimum."

"But if one of us gets sick..."

"If one of us becomes ill, Daniel Jackson, the local inhabitants can do nothing to help," Teal'c said, giving voice to exactly what Jack was thinking. The village administrator had made it clear that they didn't have any effective medication or treatment other than isolation.

"Right. Camping it is," Daniel said as they headed out into the forest beyond the village.

---

Another thing Jack hated about this planet was the plant life. It was winter according to the locals, and thankfully a fairly pleasant temperature, but the forest was more like the Amazon. The canopy was thick and overhung with vines and moss. The plants were like those found on Earth, but just a little slimier and more malignant. The forest floor was crowded with big wet plants, trip-hazard roots, and spongy, ankle deep fungus.

The little clearing they'd found made for a _lovely_ camp. Unfortunately it was the only obvious choice within an easy walk to the gate, but it wasn't the best tactically as far as Jack was concerned. The crush of alien plant life around him made him nervous, but they needed to stay out of the village and he didn't want to get too far from the gate.

They'd received extra supplies from the Alpha Site and spent the rest of their daylight hours setting up camp. That night Teal'c had taken the first watch, followed by Carter. When she finally tapped Jack's shoulder, it was pitch black, drizzling, and Jack could swear the shadows were moving. He wasn't thrilled about sitting outside the warmth of their makeshift shelter in rain gear -- he added dreary weather to his litany of complaints about this planet. But he didn't have much of a choice. They had supplies and a significant segment of the local population might be suffering from plague induced paranoia. It wasn't a recipe for good security. So he'd draped himself in one of the rain ponchos they carried in their packs and took up the position that had recently been vacated by Carter.

He had no reason to think that anyone was out here. And yet, he heard sound after sound, saw movement in the trees and just couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched. His senses were all on full alert, scrambling fighters with every real and imagined threat.

It almost took his mind off their situation. Almost, but not quite.

Hopefully Earth's Stargate would be brought back online soon and they could go home and get checked out. Hopefully none of them would come down with Ebola or if they did, hopefully Doc Fraiser could cure them.

Okay, there were a lot of 'hopefullys' in that string of thoughts. But there really didn't seem to be anything they could do about it. For now anyway, their options were limited.

The drizzle became a full, steady rain and Jack pulled his gear tighter around his body. He waited and watched and felt the shadows close in around him until finally it was time for Daniel to relieve him.

---

"Another lovely day in paradise, huh?" Jack plopped down next to the fire where Daniel was heating up the coffee the next morning. It was instant, but Daniel couldn't live without coffee, even if that meant drinking bad coffee. He always had a Ziploc bag of it in his pack and Jack often teased him that it looked like he was a junkie getting out his next hit.

Of course, teasing didn't mean he wasn't going to drink his share. He pulled the little collapsible tin cup from his pack and held it out for Daniel to pour.

They quickly fell into a pattern, a rhythm of life at camp. They all took their turns at watch. They shared the task of getting water from a nearby stream. Daniel went back to the village to find out what fruits, vegetables, and animals were edible to supplement their MREs. And every day they went back to the gate to try dialing home.

Jack was starting to go stir crazy. And it had only been a few days.

Daniel had a deck of cards in his pack and they taught Teal'c to play poker. They bet with the M&Ms in their MREs or the small sweet berries they were eating. Not surprisingly, Teal'c was cleaning up now that he had the hang of the game. Half of the entertainment Jack got from it was making it his mission to discover Teal'c's 'tell'.

"Jack, I think I'm going to go exploring today. Check out the ruins the villagers mentioned."

Jack sipped his coffee, feeling it warm his throat on the way down, a reminder of normal things. "Take Carter with you," he said glancing over towards her still occupied sleeping bag.

"Well, I was hoping to get an early start. If the information Tahlchah gave me is correct, it's probably several miles from here."

"Daniel..."

"Jack, I'll be fine. And I have a radio."

"I don't care. If something happens it would take someone a while to get to you. Wait until after we do our morning dial home and then take Carter."

He looked like he wanted to argue more and Jack was already mentally cataloging all the many, many reasons it was not a good idea to let his curious archeologist out to investigate ruins on a planet of people losing their minds. At least he could trust Carter to make sure they were back by dark. "And take a zat with you."

Daniel sighed, but gave in. "Yeah, okay."

Jack apparently wasn't the only one going stir crazy. He idly wondered how they'd be able to tell disease induced insanity from the type caused by sitting around waiting for something bad to happen.

---

Camp was quiet after Daniel and Carter went to find the ruins. Jack was bored and with Teal'c being the conversationalist that he was, the minutes were dragging by. They'd already gone to the gate to dial the Alpha Site and he was tired of hearing that there had been no change. Now they had nothing to do but hold down the fort.

Teal'c was moving through the brush around camp, searching for suitable wood for the fire. Jack sat, sipping water from his canteen and listening to the snaps and cracks as branches were sacrificed for their pyre. Jack could hear the plunk of wood against wood and then after a minute, Teal'c stepped out of the trees in front of him, a pile of heavy looking branches in his arms. He let the armload tumble onto the growing stack near the fire.

"I believe this will last for some time," he said.

"Yeah, we should be fine. Thanks Teal'c."

He was given a customary head nod and then Teal'c cleared a spot for himself on one of the fallen trees they'd dragged in front of the fire. He lowered his head and then said softly. "Do you have a plan, O'Neill?"

Jack sighed. It had been hanging in the air all afternoon and now that dusk was quickly approaching, he wasn't surprised that Teal'c would ask him, warrior to warrior before the scientists returned.

"I don't know, T. I think we keep doing what we're doing and hope we hear from Earth soon."

"And if one of us falls ill?"

Jack sighed. "We don't know how this thing spreads. Carter's guessing it's similar to Ebola, but we really don't know."

"And unless we know the method of contagion, there are no effective means to protect against its spread."

"That about sums it up." Teal'c set his jaw and Jack knew, clear as anything else he knew about his friend, that if Teal'c fell ill they'd never see him again. In a way he envied the position Teal'c was in -- he could afford to make that call. It was Jack's responsibility to get them home. And without knowing the true danger he was torn about what to do if he got sick. But he did know what he'd do if any of the rest of his team did. "Let's cross those bridges if we come to them, okay. With any luck, Earth will get the gate back on line and Dr. Fraiser will be shining lights in our eyes before anyone starts babbling."

Teal'c nodded slowly and then reached to put another log on the fire.

"So what about you, T?" Jack asked cautiously. "Are you going to go loony on us too?" Jack could find few things as disconcerting as the idea of Teal'c losing his mind. There would be few things as scary. Teal'c in a delirious state would be dangerous.

"I do not know, O'Neill. If I still had my symbiote I would presume that it would afford me protection from this disease as it did with most others. I do not know if tretonin will provide the same protection."

Jack nodded slowly. All they could do was hope for the best. They were all in the same boat.

---

The sky was a pinkish orange when Jack's radio crackled to life. "Jack, this is Daniel."

"Go ahead."

"We're approaching the camp. So, uh, don't shoot us."

"I'll take that under advisement," Jack said, and listening carefully, he could hear the echo of his voice through Daniel's radio somewhere behind them. When he listened more closely, he could hear them moving through the forest. They were for the most part quiet, but it was impossible to be completely silent with all the squishing plants. After a few minutes, Daniel and Carter broke through the edge of the trees.

"Find anything?" Jack asked.

"Well, yes and no," Daniel said, in typical Daniel fashion. "We spent some time at the ruins and it appears this plague has been, uh, well … plaguing … this planet for a long time."

"It really does seem similar to Ebola, sir." Carter dropped her pack and took a swig from her canteen. "Ebola hasn't spread beyond Africa on Earth because it's too devastating an illness. People show symptoms quickly after exposure and it doesn't take long for the disease to run its course and kill them. It makes it difficult to spread. That and the fact that at least for Ebola, the disease doesn't live long outside the body so it almost has to be spread through fluid contact."

"Based on the translations of the written history in the ruins, the disease does spread rapidly between villages early on, but it's quickly identified and the local inhabitants have a plan for quarantine which is fairly effective. They're generally successful in confining the disease to three or four villages before it gets out of control." Daniel paused and tipped his head. "Of course, those villages get decimated..."

Jack sighed. "Did you find anything that might help us?"

"Well, sir, like Ebola, this plague tends to go dormant for years in between outbreaks. So there was a lot of history. It's probably spread by some bush animal or maybe has the ability to go dormant and live in the dirt or plants until the weather conditions are just right. But the thing is, there are survivors. The disease is not a hundred percent contagious. There are stories of people in the villages who've been able to tend the sick without coming down with the disease themselves. And there are also victims of the disease who survive it. The mortality rate appears to be about eighty percent."

"And that helps us how?" Jack asked.

"Well, sir, if we could get Dr. Fraiser here, she might be able to create a vaccine if she can locate people who seem to be immune to the disease or those who've had the disease and survived."

"Except that Dr. Fraiser isn't here."

"I know that, sir. But the other important thing to note is that the disease very quickly burns itself out. If we stay out here, outside of the villages, there's a good chance we can avoid exposure."

"Not to put a damper on things, but we may have already been exposed," Jack said.

"It's possible, but we haven't had any direct exposure that we know of. We haven't come into contact with anyone who's been visibly ill. Maybe we got lucky."

Jack nodded. He should be happy to have something to hang his hat on, but as long as they were on this planet he was going to be uneasy. He just wanted to get his team home -- preferably with no bleeding.

"Alright, kids, nice work." He mentally noted that Carter did indeed get them home before nightfall. "And to celebrate, I caught fish."

"You _caught_ fish," Daniel said, giving him a quick grin.

"Hey! I caught fish. I cleaned fish. I even cooked fish." He gestured to the filets speared on a stripped branch. "I haven't yet promised to _share_ fish."

"Touche," Daniel said, sitting on the log and pulling open his pack. He dug out his tin plate and waited at the ready. "All hail the master fisherman Jack."

"That's more like it." Jack speared him a fish and plopped it on his plate before giving everyone on his team their share.

The fish was bland, but it was better than the MREs which Jack was already getting tired of. Maybe tomorrow Teal'c would manage to spear one of the wild boars they'd seen. But in the meantime, they all ate in a companionable silence, the feeling that they may just get out of this yet palpable in the air. The news was grim but it hadn't all been bad and for the first time in days, Jack felt the tension around camp ease.

---

The screaming started on Carter's watch -- a high inhuman shriek that woke Jack out of a light sleep instantly. He was up and had his P-90 in hand, already tracking the source of the sound as Daniel and Teal'c flew into sitting positions themselves.

He gestured to Daniel and Teal'c to secure the area, each taking up a position that would cover them from all sides. Circling the wagons.

"Carter?" he hissed, moving away from the fire and waiting to get his night eyes.

He heard her moving in the brush to his right and headed that direction as another unearthly wail went up. He could almost believe that it was a bird. Almost. Except most birds bedded down for the night. And they hadn't heard anything like this before.

Carter had taken cover behind a fallen log and Jack dropped to the ground to join her. "Any idea what it is?"

"No, sir, but I hear something moving, approximately two o'clock."

Jack strained to see anything in the direction she was indicating. It was quiet for a moment and then there was another blood-curdling yell, followed by the sound of twigs breaking. Something was definitely moving. Something big.

Jack grabbed his radio. "Daniel, put out the fire. That may be attracting it."

It wasn't long before he heard a dying sizzle followed by a deepening darkness. Just as Jack was about to motion for them to spread out, the thing let out what sounded like a battle cry and started crashing through the forest right toward their position. Jack opened fire, unable to see what he was shooting at. Seconds later Carter opened up as well, but whatever it was come barreling past them, headed toward the camp.

"Teal'c! Daniel! It's coming your way!" Jack yelled into the radio. Seconds later he heard Teal'c's staff weapon and right after that, Daniel's P-90. Jack motioned for Carter to follow him and they chased the sound back to the campsite. They came out into the little clearing and in the faint starlight, Jack could see a figure standing at the center of the camp, its silhouette dark against the last remains of the fire. Jack saw the flashes from Daniel's gun and pulled up short. The figure was screaming and gyrating as though it had been hit but it wasn't dropping. It was spinning and whirling while shrieking. Then it ran directly for Daniel and threw itself at him. Jack heard Daniel's gun hit something and fall away. Both he and Carter ran toward them as Teal'c pulled the figure off their teammate. It turned and barreled into Carter. Jack grabbed a hold of slick fabric and flung it away, bringing his P-90 to bear and unloading on the thing at close range. He felt spatter hit his chest as the thing finally wobbled and fell. It hit the ground with a sick, wet thud.

Carter kept her gun on it as Jack approached from one side and Teal'c from the other. Warily eyeing the crumpled shadow, Jack paused to pull out his flashlight. Teal'c had the thing covered and Jack approached cautiously, flipping on his light and aiming it down. The figure was human. Or had been. Jack felt his stomach lurch at the rivers of blood flowing out of the man's ears and mouth. His hair and clothing were caked in it. His chest and arms were riddled with oozing bullet holes. Jack grabbed a long spindly branch off the wood pile and poked him. But he wasn't moving.

"Sir..." Carter said, coming up behind him. Jack turned to see that she had her flashlight pointed down. The dirt around them was spattered with blood. It covered the wood pile, and the logs around the fire. It was everywhere. Then she shown the light on Jack and he could see the streaks smeared into his hand and the spray of droplets covering his t-shirt.

Jack took one more look at the remnants of the villager and then spun around to the rest of the team, his own flashlight in hand. They all had stains or smears. They were all exposed.

"Everyone down to the stream to clean up. Now."

"Sir, the gear?"

"We'll come back for it, Carter."

She nodded but then paused at her pack to get a bar of soap.

They quickly made their way down to the stream and each stripped out of any contaminated clothing. Jack took their soiled clothes, rolled them into a tight ball, and buried them. Then they all leaned over the water, scrubbing and cleaning the affected parts of their bodies. The stream was frigid and Jack shivered uncontrollably after dunking his head and whole upper body. They were all shivering and trying to move as quickly as possible, sharing the soap between them.

They walked back to camp silently, all of them without t-shirts, Carter in her sports bra and Daniel without pants. There were jokes to be made, but Jack couldn't do it. He just couldn't make light of the situation. He had scrubbed the blood off his body, but his skin was still crawling.

When they got back to camp, they went to their packs for spare clothes, looking the bags over with flashlights thoroughly before touching them.

Jack gave the camp another look, but as far as he was concerned, it was a total loss. There was too much blood.

"Pack up. We're leaving." He wasn't thrilled about the idea of trying to move through the jungle terrain at night, but it would be several hours before dawn and Jack didn't want to stay in a plague contaminated area. He also didn't want any more villagers finding them. They needed to get further away.

No one argued.

"The pack with the MREs and the med kit looks clean," Carter said, picking it up by the straps.

They were able to recover two of their packs and two sleeping bags. The rest would have to be abandoned. They would get more provisions from the Alpha Site tomorrow.

"We'll travel upstream and see if we can't find another good place to camp," Jack said, thinking that this time he wanted something with a bit more clearing around it to keep potential problems from creeping up on them again.

"Jack, the area around the stream is the easiest terrain to move though. Not to mention a source of fresh water. If there are any more villagers who've been cast out, they're likely to make their way to it."

"I'm aware of that, Daniel. We'll just have to keep our eyes open."

"Yes, but Jack-"

"Daniel, not now. We'll find a temporary spot to bed down tonight and try to find something more permanent tomorrow."

They gathered the rest of their supplies and headed out -- shadows moving in a forest that was a little too alive for Jack's peace of mind.

---

To Be Continued


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't home, but it would do for the moment -- a rocky outcropping complete with a cave set into the side of a hill. There was forest around the backside of the hill, but the rocky, sparse slope spread out in front of them afforded an excellent vantage point to see anyone coming. The cave itself was dank and dreary, the inside of it choked with the vines and jungle vegetation that also grew under the forest's thick canopy. But it was easily defended and not far from the stream. It was farther from the gate than Jack would have liked, but he wasn't in any position to be picky.

"Alright, let's set up camp. Again." They had spent the previous evening huddled near the stream, nervously watching the water and the footpath on the other side but thankfully they hadn't run into anyone else.

Jack un-shouldered his pack and stared down at the slope first and then up at the sky. It wasn't the right color. There was just a little too much green -- enough to make it look sickly.

"Sir, this disease must be carried by something out there. I think maybe Daniel and I should go back to the ruins and see if we can find out more about how this culture lives. If we know what they're exposed to, maybe we can avoid some of the potential sources of infection."

"Carter, what exactly is the point in locking the barn door now?"

She jerked her head back sharply, and stared at him.

Daniel stopped poking in his bag and looked up. "We washed everything off last night. You never know, Jack, we might be alright. There's no point in unnecessarily exposing ourselves again. And we might learn something in the ruins that could help us either way."

Jack let out his frustration with a sigh. "Fine. Carter, you and Daniel go to the ruins. Teal'c and I will set up camp."

She nodded but still looked at him warily. After taking a few minutes to help organize, she and Daniel started the trek down the slope, picking their way through the short fern-like plants that covered the rocky hillside.

"What do you say we start collecting wood for a fire?"

Teal'c tipped his head slowly to the side. "O'Neill, you are aware that with this new camp site, we are further from the gate. It will be a significant walk to reach it."

"Yeah, I know, Teal'c. But I don't see what choice we have." He already felt cut off and stranded. What difference would another couple klicks make?

---

Camp was comfortable if not the height of off-world luxury. They'd dug a fire pit outside the cave and Teal'c had dragged some fallen trees up the slope to serve as benches. So far it had been warm and dry enough to sleep outside the cave – Jack had always felt better sleeping under the stars anyway – but they were making preparations in case they needed to move indoors. Daniel and Carter had cleared away some of the vegetation so that they'd have a dry place to sleep. Carter had been fascinated by the variety of plant species that had adapted to living in such low light conditions. She had studied each plant before ripping it out of the ground.

They'd done a lot of work over the last two days to make their camp habitable but now that work was winding down and they were starting to dig in for the long haul. They reported in daily with the Alpha Site. Earth's gate was still down and a couple of off-world teams had rendezvoused on the base to wait. Others, like them, were still in contact and getting supplies but not returning. Already the trudge to and from the gate was getting old. At least Daniel had new and presumably exciting -- at least for Daniel -- translations to do. Apparently there were walls and walls of a very old Goa'uld dialect in the ruins and it was taking Daniel some time to figure it out exactly.

Not that they'd managed to find any smoking guns. Carter was still convinced it was something animal borne and they were looking for any rituals or ceremonies that involved unusual foods. But nothing had jumped out at her so far.

Which left them with their daily grind.

Jack sipped his coffee and stared into the roaring fire that Teal'c had built up before going to patrol. At least it was sunny today. They had that going for them. Even the weather the last few days had been dreary and threatening with low ominous clouds on the horizon.

He stared into the flames, enjoying the warmth on his face from both the fire and the sun.

"Colonel?"

He jumped, suddenly realizing that Carter was right next to him.

"Geez, Carter, don't sneak up on a person like that," he groused, shaking the coffee he'd spilled off his hand, thankful that it wasn't very hot.

"Sorry, sir." Her brow was furrowed, a look of deep concern on her face. "Are you okay?"

"Just thinking, Major."

She stared at him a moment, pursing her lips and obviously _studying_ him. "Are you sure? You were really out of it."

"Of course I'm sure. Was there something you wanted?" he snapped, irritated.

She shook her head and let it go. "Yes, sir. The med kit and it has a thermometer and alcohol to sterilize it between uses. I was thinking that maybe we should start taking our temperatures daily. We don't know much about this disease, but its possible fever might be a good early warning symptom. It's more objective than looking for psychological symptoms."

Jack nodded. He didn't like the idea of having someone sick out on watch at night. And just watching for paranoia was paranoia inducing. So far they'd all been pretty good about keeping things in perspective, but taking their temperatures couldn't hurt. "Good idea, Carter."

She nodded and pulled out the med kit, popping the thermometer into her mouth first.

---

Jack and Daniel were the first ones up the next morning, quietly puttering around camp. Daniel was a lot happier these days because they'd gotten real coffee and filters from the Alpha Site. It was a little tricky to make it with two pots and the little sterno stove, but Daniel was motivated and patient. He had enlisted Carter's help in rigging up a way to suspend the filters from a y-shaped branch over a pot on the stove. Daniel slowly and carefully poured water from a second pot through the filter and let it drip into the pot below it.

Daniel let the coffee heat up in the lower pot a minute and then poured cups for the two of them.

"Getting better," Jack said, taking a welcomed sip. The first few go-arounds had resulted in horribly weak brews. It had taken Daniel a while to figure out the right mix of grounds and pouring speed.

Daniel nodded and then wrapped his fingers around his cup greedily.

When he was done with his coffee, Jack took a quick jog down to the stream to replenish their water supplies. When he got back, he found that Teal'c had returned from patrol and Carter was up, her hair tousled from sleep, her hands wrapped around their own cup of coffee.

Jack set the bucket of water down, added the purification tablets, and let them dissolve before filling everyone's canteens for them.

"Don't forget your morning temp-in," he said, tossing the med kit in Daniel's direction. Then he rummaged through the sack of food they had. Each of them dumped things they didn't like from their MREs into a communal sack and they all got to take other things out, first come, first served. He found a dinner roll to go with his coffee and berries. Not a bad breakfast as far as it went. He looked up from his scrounging in time to see Daniel take a large swig of water before popping the thermometer into his mouth.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Jack asked slowly

Daniel looked up, perfectly puzzled, and looking childish with the thermometer sticking out of his mouth. "Taking mah temperature, ath requethted."

"After taking a drink of water?"

"Uh, yeth."

"Daniel, you aren't going to get a valid reading if you're drinking cold water first."

"Ith not that cold."

"I just got it out of the stream. It's probably 40 degrees."

"What are you tahking about, Jack?"

"I saw you. You took a drink of cold water before taking your temperature."

Daniel pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and squinted at him. "So what?"

"So you were cooling your mouth. Are you trying to hide a fever?"

"What? No."

"Then why is your canteen sitting next to you?"

Daniel looked at Carter who was watching both of them intently. Then he looked at his pile of personal gear. "Uh. Because all my stuff is here?"

Jack glared at him and took the thermometer from his hand. It read 98.2 degrees. "You need to take another reading. This one's corrupted."

"Are you kidding?"

Jack held the thermometer out. "Does it really look like I'm kidding? We've all been exposed to a plague. We need to figure out if any of us is coming down with it."

Daniel's face hardened as he glared back. "And then what?"

"What do you mean 'and then what?'"

"I mean what it sounds like. So we find out one of us is sick, then what? We can't get back to Earth and there's no cure here. In all likelihood, if one of us is exposed, the rest of us will already be exposed. Are we really going to banish anyone who turns up with a fever?"

"No."

"So how does it help us to know who's sick?"

Jack glared at him, hating the way he could just rattle off doom and gloom when Jack didn't want to hear those things spoken out loud. He knew what they were dealing with. He didn't need to be hit in the face with it. He thrust the thermometer in Daniel's direction again. "If one of us ends up sick, the others know to be more careful," he said as simply as he could. It was all he knew how to do right now. And doing something was better than doing nothing.

Daniel reluctantly accepted the thermometer this time and dutifully shook it down before placing it back in his mouth, his eyes never leaving Jack's.

---

Jack was still angry when he and Teal'c headed out to make their daily gate call. He was pounding through the jungle, batting away vines and kicking ferns and things out of his way.

"Are you alright, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

Jack ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah. I'm fine. But I think we need to keep an eye on Daniel," he said without looking up.

"Is there a problem?"

"I caught him drinking cold water before taking his temperature this morning. He took it again and it turned out fine, but it seemed like kind of a paranoid thing to do. Like he's trying to hide being sick."

Teal'c turned his head to the side, and didn't say anything.

"I just think we should be careful. We don't know how subtly these symptoms come on and he's behaving a little strangely."

Teal'c seemed to ponder that and more unsettlingly, he seemed to ponder Jack for a moment before answering. "That would seem to be a wise course of action."

Jack nodded and then stood, suddenly feeling restless. He didn't want to have to be wary about every action of his teammates. But he also didn't want someone who was delusional or sick out on watch protecting them. And he didn't want them exposed any further than they already had been, so he was going to have to keep a close eye on everyone. He just hoped he could walk the tight rope of protecting them without getting paranoid himself.

They hiked the rest of the way to the gate in silence and Jack had the uncomfortable feeling that Teal'c was suspicious of him. When they finally broke into the sculpture garden, it wasn't a moment too soon, as far as Jack was concerned. He wanted to get this daily ritual over with and get back. He touched the brim of his ball cap in the direction of the sculpture of the man tipping his hat and then went directly for the DHD. He punched in Earth's address and watched as the gate spun but ultimately came up empty. Then he punched in the Alpha Site's address to check in with them and get the daily news.

The gate spun, the chevrons aligned, but there was no event horizon.

The wind went out of Jack's sails as he stared up at the scenery behind the gate – the scenery that wouldn't be visible if the gate had activated.

"Are you sure you dialed the Alpha Site and not Earth?" Teal'c asked.

Jack shrugged and tried again. Still nothing.

"Teal'c?"

"Yes, O'Neill."

"Does it look to you like the Alpha Site's gate isn't working?"

"It does indeed appear that way."

Teal'c approached the DHD and tried punching in the coordinates himself but got the same results.

Jack took off his cap and ran a hand through his hair. Yep, things just kept getting better and better. Now they were cut off from the Alpha Site too.

---

"What's the first thing you're going to do when we get home and escape from the infirmary?" Jack asked Teal'c by way of making conversation. They were still going to the gate once a day to check to see if there was any change, but they hadn't been able to contact either Earth or the Alpha Site for three days. Today was no different and they were on their way back to camp.

"Take a shower."

"Practical. Me, I think I'm going to throw on some deodorant and some civvies and go down to The Pass for cheap pizza and beer."

He didn't have to turn to see the raised eyebrow. Teal'c didn't appreciate the fine cuisine at The Pass. For some odd reason he didn't care for the grease that pooled up on top of the cheese or the atmosphere which was always just one beer short of a brawl -- when there wasn't already an active brawl in progress. But Jack loved the seedy lack of pretension. It wasn't just a neighborhood dive, it was _his_ neighborhood dive. Besides, what did Teal'c know? The man didn't even drink beer.

"That is an interesting choice, O'Neill. However, I do not believe..."

He trailed off and Jack turned to see what had caught his attention. Teal'c was standing with his head cocked to the side, a frown creasing his forehead.

"What-"

Teal'c held up a hand to silence him and then Jack heard it. Beyond the forest sounds there was a steady drone of something manmade. A ship.

The sound got louder and louder until they both looked up to see a Tel'tak through the trees.

They jogged back the rest of the way to the edge of the slope, taking up positions just inside the tree line as the Tel'tak circled and landed on the slope. Jack spotted Carter and Daniel take cover inside the cave. Jack tightened his grip on his gun, not sure who they were going to find at the helm of the ship.

The door to the Tel'tak slid open and Jacob Carter stepped out onto the hill.

Jack relaxed his hold on the P-90 and stepped away from the edge of the forest. "Jacob! Nice of you to drop by," he yelled, waving as they hurried over to the ship.

Jacob tipped his head to Teal'c, shook hands with Jack and said, "It's good to see you too," with more feeling than Jack was expecting. He looked again at Jacob's face and noticed the lines that were etched just a bit deeper around his eyes and the forward roll of his shoulders. Jacob was carrying a weight that hadn't been lifted by finding them. It immediately set Jack on edge.

The rest of the team reached them and Jacob shook Daniel's hand and hugged Sam tightly. Again, Jack noticed that he was hugging her tighter than normal and could swear he saw a slight shake in Jacob's hands. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I come bearing bad news."

Jack swallowed a lump in his throat. It wasn't just some malfunction or enemy interfering with things. Something had happened to the SGC and the Alpha Site. That's why they couldn't dial the gates. He was suddenly sure of it.

"Is there somewhere we can sit and talk?"

Jack nodded, trying not to notice the slightly beaten way Jacob carried himself. This was bad. Very bad. "You can join us at luxurious Camp SG-1. But I have to warn you, the decorators haven't finished yet."

They climbed the slope and Jacob took a seat on one of the logs in front of the fire.

"Would you like anything?" Jack asked. "I make a mean boiled water."

"No, thank you." Jacob turned away from the view to look at them all. "A few of days ago, one of our ships received a faint distress call from the Alpha Site. They were under attack by Anubis's fleet. The first thing Anubis did was destroy their gate. He sent some sort of pulse through it that literally vaporized it. Then his fleet sat in orbit, pulverizing them. There was nothing we could do. It was too late by the time we arrived."

Jack could feel the tension rising in the little group. Jacob stared down at his hands, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

"Before they were completely destroyed, they told us that they had been out of contact with Earth and gave us the locations of all the off world teams who had checked in.

Afraid that Anubis had attacked, we went to Earth." He stopped speaking and ran his hand over his head, staring out over the alien terrain.

Jack watched him as the tension in the group ramped up. Jacob was looking at the ground, avoiding all eye contact. Then he closed his eyes and Selmak took over. "Jacob is too overcome to continue," he said in his deeper voice. "I cannot adequately express how sorry I am. How sorry all of the Tok'ra are. But I am afraid that Earth is gone."

"What do you mean 'gone?'" Carter asked, horror and disbelief contorting her face. She looked up at Jack and then back down. "Dad?"

The body language changed again and Jacob dropped his head into his hands. "I'm sorry, Sam. Earth was destroyed. Everything is gone."

His words sank into a void of silence. Jack just stared at him, unable to take in what he'd just heard. He was unable to believe that Earth could really be gone -- unable to believe that this could be anything other than a bad dream or a sick joke or a Goa'uld trick. "Are you sure? Are you sure that the Goa'uld didn't somehow cloak it or beam it away or something?" he asked, grasping at straws.

"I'm sorry," Jacob said softly. "There was…debris. And radiation."

"My God," Carter whispered. "What happened?"

"We don't know. Possibly some sort of plasma explosive. Maybe Anubis sent it into the earth's core somehow."

"But you're sure? You're sure that Earth is completely gone?" The disbelief and horror in her voice pierced Jack through and through. Surely Carter could think of some way to fix this, to figure out what trick the Goa'uld were using. She was Carter after all.

"I'm sorry. We spent hours there. Making sure." He spoke in broken little sentences like his voice was mirroring his emotions.

No one said anything. Everyone stared. Jack felt like he couldn't breath, like the actual air had been taken away from him. How could they be without a home planet? How was that even possible? It didn't make sense. It didn't compute. He never had been any good at doing math. His brain felt like it was overloading. He had to get away from Jacob, away from the news, away from the looks on his team's faces.

"I guess I don't have to worry about all those unpaid parking tickets anymore, huh?" he said bitterly, the gallows humor his best shield against pain. Then he got up and quickly stalked to the cave where he restlessly paced, trying to outrun his thoughts. But there was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide from the fact that everything he'd ever known was gone. Everyone and everything he loved and cared about was nothing but debris and radiation.

The weight of it hit him hard. He couldn't pace anymore, couldn't make his legs move. He stumbled and then sank to the floor of the cave, emotion cleaving him in two. He sat there on the floor until he heard someone at the entrance.

"Sir?"

He didn't answer. Couldn't find his voice.

"Are you alright?"

"No, Carter, I'm not alright! In case you missed the memo, Earth and most of its people are gone. I'm having a hard time being 'alright!'" he yelled at her, suddenly so consumed with fury and rage that it completely overwhelmed everything else. He flew to his feet and then punched the cave wall.

"Sir!" she said, grabbing his arm. He jerked away from her but then pulled up cold. She stared at him with eyes that were teary and fearful.

They were all in the same position, feeling the same things. He dropped his hand and the rage boiled out of him. For the moment, anyway.

She took a step closer and he balled his hands into fists and turned his head away.

Carter cautiously took another step and wrapped her arms around his waist. When he didn't move, she buried her head against his chest.

Jack was completely overcome. He embraced her so tightly he was probably hurting her -- defiantly holding onto one of the only things he had left.

---

No one felt like eating. They sat around the fire in a brutal silence each lost in their own thoughts until finally, Daniel cleared his throat. "You said that you got the positions of the other off-world teams," he asked hoarsely.

Jacob looked up at him. "Yes. We've been picking them up, bringing them to safety."

Daniel dragged the heel of his boot through the dirt, gouging a little rut in front of him. "We can't go with you," he said quietly.

"I know."

Jack turned to stare at him. "You know?"

Jacob closed his eyes and Selmak spoke. "Several years back the Tok'ra scouted this planet as a potential base. It was during a time when we were using inhabited planets as a means of hiding from the Goa'uld. We quickly realized what was happening to the human population."

"So you have data on the disease?" Sam asked, and Jack could hear the spark of hope in her voice.

"Yes. Unfortunately, the news isn't good. We tried to use the healing devices to save them, but it only slowed down the disease's course and prolonged the madness. The villagers told us that the plague returned every couple of years. Our symbiotes provided immunity and we offered the humans the option to become hosts. Some chose to join us, others did not. We offered them transport to another planet, but they did not want to leave their home. Then we received intelligence that the Goa'uld may have compromised our location and we had no choice but to go."

"And you didn't think to mention to us that there was a plague planet out there!?" Jack let his anger boil over and mix with his frustration with the Tok'ra.

Jacob took over from Selmak again. "It's one of many dangerous planets, Jack. Had we known you were planning to come here, we would have warned you. But the SGC doesn't freely share its information with the Tok'ra either you know."

Didn't.

The correct word hung in the air like nerve gas and Jacob coughed and cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Daniel picked up a long blade of grass and slowly picked it apart. "I suppose maybe that explains why the villagers didn't warn us. Maybe they thought that all off-worlders were immune."

"That's a possibility, yes," Jacob said.

"Dad, do you have a way of quarantining us?"

Jacob looked truly stricken and Jack felt a sudden, deep sympathy for him. He knew how it felt to be hit with the knowledge that there was nothing more you could do to protect your child. He knew what it felt like to know it was too late.

"In the past we could have, yes. But we're decimated, Sam. We only have what little we can carry with us. Taking care of the other off-world teams has taxed our resources."

"And we can't endanger them," Daniel said, a little bit bitterly.

"Do you have any way of determining if any of us is infected?" Jack asked.

"Do you really want to know?"

"If none of us is infected, couldn't we go with you?" Jack asked. He was surprised by the glum reaction Carter gave him.

"We can't, sir. We don't know how it's transmitted. They can't stop it, or cure it. If we infect what remains of Earth's population..."

And it finally clicked in Jack's mind. The 'Tau'ri' were really dead. A few stragglers didn't mean much anymore. They'd probably end up Tok'ra hosts, although, there weren't exactly an abundance of Tok'ra symbiotes left these days. All those who'd lived on Earth would be gone in a hundred years or less. Despair settled over him and he couldn't fight it. He let his head sink into his hands. The SGC, everyone he cared about. Sara. His parents, Sara's dad, the kid next door who liked to hit golf balls into his yard. All gone. Everyone and everything. It was too much to take in. Too much emotion to even feel.

---

Jacob had brought them supplies. It bothered Jack how callus and premeditated it seemed. 'Sorry, we can't help you but here are some blankets and a few decent meals.' But then what was someone supposed to do for his friends who had just lost their home world. Jack was pretty sure they didn't make a Hallmark card for that. _Roses are red, violets are blue, you lost your world but I still care about you_.

They unloaded the last of the crates and then shared a meal together. Afterward they walked Jacob back to his ship.

"I'm sorry. But we still have a few more teams to find and we're spread very thin," Jacob said more to Sam than anyone else.

"I know, Dad. Make sure they're okay, please. And check in. We'd like to know who..."

She trailed off but Jack could guess what she was going to say.

"We're going to resurrect the research that was first carried out when the Tok'ra found this place and see if we can't do something about the plague or at least make it safe for you to join us," Jacob said.

"Keep in touch," Sam said, giving her father a hug.

"Of course, Sam. I'll be back soon." He put his hands on her shoulders. "In the meantime, be careful. If you stay outside of their society, maybe you'll be able to avoid contracting it."

Jack tried not to think about the villager they'd shot in their camp and the sprays of blood everywhere.

Jacob shook hands with Daniel and then Jack. In his eyes, Jack was sure he could see Jacob pleading for him to take care of his daughter. And Jack wished he could. He nodded and gave Jacob's hand a tighter squeeze. Then Jacob climbed into the Tel'tak and they all backed away. They watched as it hovered off the ground, turned and quickly made its way out of the atmosphere leaving them alone again.

-----------------

To Be Continued


	3. Chapter 3

For days everything was quiet. Even the local birds and wildlife seemed to realize there was something to be mourned. They didn't talk. They went about their daily tasks, which had lessened now that Jacob had brought them provisions and there was no point in going to the gate. There was a lot of quiet time. Daniel slunk off to the ruins frequently and Teal'c seemed to take forever collecting firewood. It was like the weight of all of Earth was resting on their backs.

But it wasn't really. They were the outcasts. They couldn't even join the straggle of survivors. They were nothing. Homeless. People from a lost culture. The kind of people that Daniel made a habit of studying.

Come to think of it, Daniel had been spending a lot of time writing in his journal. Jack wondered if he was trying to get it all down -- to sum up the people of Earth in 50 pages or less. Maybe he was trying to leave something of their world for some other archeologist somewhere to find. Jack didn't envy him the task.

Since that night eons ago when the villager had entered their camp, they hadn't had any unwelcome visitors. Since Jacob, they hadn't had any welcomed visitors either. Their world had shrunk to the four of them, a windswept hill, and a vegetation choked cave.

Jack was tired of it. Tired of all of it. And being irritated was at least better than being numb.

He picked up the stick he used to fish and took off down the slope. He didn't bother to tell Daniel where he was going -- the pole should make it self-evident -- but he felt Daniel look up as he walked by.

It was a short hike to the stream, and it felt good to be completely alone for a change. He just wanted to stare out at a stream, feel for the tickle on his line, and fight a fish into shore.

He tossed his line out - cast was too formal a word for a stick with no reel -- and watched it flow with the current, cutting a line through the water. He could see the dark shapes of the fish swirling underneath the surface, but they weren't biting. Not that Jack cared.

He pulled his line in, checked the bait and then threw it out again. He closed his eyes and let the sound the stream and the slight breeze in the wind calm him. He felt a sharp prick in the crook of his arm and swatted it, annoyed that something had bit him. He opened his eye a crack, but whatever it was had gotten away. At least this planet didn't have an over abundance of mosquitoes.

He didn't hear Teal'c, he felt him. It amazed him that someone so large and solid could move so quietly when he wanted to. Maybe it was all that meditation, a habit Teal'c had gone back to since their marooning on this planet.

"What's up, Teal'c?" he asked, not bothering to look over his shoulder.

"Do you mind if I join you, O'Neill?"

"I thought you didn't like fishing."

"I do not care for it, no." Teal'c sat on the rock next to him, large booted feet firmly planted on the ground, elbows resting on his knees. "Are you alright, O'Neill?"

"Oh, everything's just peachy. My home is destroyed, everyone I ever knew with the exception of some aliens and the three of you are gone, and we're living on a plague planet."

"I am an alien too."

Jack's first instinct was to turn and snap at him. But then he got Teal'c's point. The problem was, he wasn't up for making new friends right now even if it were an option, which it wasn't. "Teal'c we're stuck without a home to go back to and nothing here for us. Not to mention the fact that we could all start dropping like flies. Bleeding flies."

A large heavy hand fell to his shoulder. "Home is where you make it, O'Neill."

"Easy for you to say. Chulak wasn't destroyed. You could still go home."

"I cannot. The young may be vulnerable to this disease. And others visiting my planet would die. I cannot go home any more than you can."

"At least you have a home planet even if you can't go there."

"I am sorry, O'Neill. And I am sorry for the people of Earth. I came to deeply respect the Tau'ri and those of the SGC."

Jack lowered his head. Hammond, Dr. Fraiser, Cassie, and everyone he ever met, gone. It was impossible to comprehend. He just sat there staring at the water, unable to mourn them all. It was too much.

"Major Carter and Daniel Jackson need your leadership, O'Neill. They are waiting to see what you do."

"What's there to do?! I mean, what's the point?!" Jack was suddenly furious again and he didn't even know why. Of course they were looking to him but what did they really expect him to do? He couldn't _change_ anything. They were stuck. Marooned. There was no way he could change that. He could not bring Earth back.

"Is not living a point unto itself?"

Jack closed his eyes, feeling the pull of the sharp line across his finger as something poked at his bait. "I don't know anymore, Teal'c. I just don't know."

The hand tightened briefly around his shoulder and then just as quietly, Teal'c left.

---

At least he had something to bring them. It wasn't much but fresh fish was better than canned meat and powdered milk. He approached the cave to find Daniel in the middle of some story, Carter with just the barest hint of a smile on her face. She turned and saw him and that promise of a smile faded. "Sir?"

And then he understood what Teal'c was trying to say. Then he realized that they were really still looking to him. He had no rank, no service behind him, but they were still looking to him to set the mood. They were ready to stop smiling if that's what he thought they should be doing. He didn't know what they were going to do, but if they were going to live out their days alone in this place, they were going to actually have to live. They couldn't bring Earth back and they wouldn't ever stop mourning it. But they had to keep living.

The alternative was to lie down and die and Jack couldn't find much of a point in that.

"What's a good campfire without a barbeque?" he called, plastering a smile on his face that he didn't feel. Maybe if he pretended, he would start to feel it. "Daniel, are you telling campfire stories?"

Daniel looked at him suspiciously. "Ah, kind of."

"Anything interesting?"

"I was just, um, reciting a few highlights from _The Odyssey_."

"Riiiiight." Jack said slowly. "Okay. From now on, I tell the campfire stories."

They all looked at him suspiciously.

"Carter, could you please put these beautiful and sure to be tasty fish on the fire?"

She grabbed a long straight branch they had stripped as a skewer and poked it through each one.

Jack grabbed a seat in front of the fire as the wood crackled and popped. "There once was a man named Homer. And no, not your ancient Greek guy, Daniel. This Homer was funny."

Daniel and Carter groaned. Teal'c smiled and Jack knew that he had enough material to keep them entertained for several years. Okay, possibly not the rest of his team, but he knew he'd be able to keep himself entertained at least.

---

It was subtle at first -- a newly developed tick, a wildness to his eyes when startled, a far off stare. But Jack noticed it.

He sat down at the lip of the cave on the lookout for sunset. Teal'c was still collecting firewood, Carter was attempting to make them wild boar soup. Daniel was tending the fire, poking at the ground with his stick. Teal'c returned with a large armful of wood and let it clatter onto the pile. Daniel jumped inches off his seat, glanced around and then settled back with an uneasy tightness in his face.

"You alright?" Jack asked casually.

"Yeah."

"I did not mean to startle you, Daniel Jackson."

"It's okay, Teal'c."

But Jack caught the hint of concern in Teal'c's features. When Teal'c looked up again, Jack caught his eye. _He's been this way all day_, Jack said with his expression. He was pretty sure that Teal'c's said, _I am aware and I share your concern_.

Daniel hopped to his feet. "I think I'm going to, uh, try to do some more translating at the ruins."

Jack glanced up at the sky, the sun was low on the horizon, giving the normally slightly green sky a sickly orange hue. "It's late, Daniel, stick around camp."

"For what?"

"For the best boar soup this side of ... wherever they eat wild boar."

Carter had stopped chopping up pieces of meat and watched them closely. "Are you okay, Daniel?" she asked.

"Fine but I'm going nuts from boredom here. I won't be gone long."

"Wait until morning," Jack said, not really wanting to order him to.

Teal'c had moved to a more tactical position and Jack could feel the tension ramping up. The drip, drip in the cave behind them was suddenly loud in the silence.

"Fine," Daniel grumbled staring down at his hands. Jack and Teal'c shared another look but then Teal'c moved away, and Carter went back to chopping up the meat and tossing the little bits into the small aluminum pot.

Wild boar stew wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Nonetheless, he was disturbed by the fact that Daniel picked at his food, eyes darting back and forth occasionally, almost hoarding what he wasn't eating. Carter caught Jack's eye at one point after Daniel stared off into space for a prolonged period of time, her concern obvious.

Night crept in around them slowly, the sky getting progressively darker, and Jack was at least slightly relieved to have the awful green tint out of the sky. But the stars were unfamiliar and reminded him that they weren't home -- reminded him that they weren't ever going home. These might be the last stars he ever fell asleep under. Not that he expected to get any sleep tonight.

They were all watching Daniel, obviously analyzing every one of his moves and ticks, trying to read the tea leaves. Daniel seemed either oblivious to the focus his teammates were giving him or he was just ignoring it. In fact, in the light of the fire, he seemed to be ignoring a lot of things. He still hadn't eaten his soup, but he was keeping the bowl right next to his leg, brushing the cotton of his BDUs. He stared into the fire like wild animals sometimes did, like he feared it but was unable to break its spell.

"So what episode were we up to?" Carter asked, looking Jack's direction.

"106. The one where Lisa meets Bleedin' Gums Murphy. But I don't think I can muster much of the story tonight though. Someone else tell a story." The truth was he was in no mood to try to be funny. He couldn't even muster that at the moment. Carter and Teal'c looked at each other but Daniel didn't even seem to hear him. Daniel was usually the one who told campfire stories, knowing the various ghost stories and myths of a hundred different societies. But not tonight. Tonight he was still entranced by the fire.

"On Chulak, parents tell their children the story of the Peht'tah on the eve of their first night alone in the ritual of Pri'vene."

There was an awkward pause where Daniel would normally translate for the non-Goa'uld speaking members of the party.

"Pri'vene?" Carter finally asked.

Teal'c nodded slowly. "During the summer season when a Jaffa child reaches eight years of age, they are sent with other children in their cohort on their first training exercise without their parents present."

It took a few minutes for the words to sink into Jack's head and rearrange themselves into something he could understand. The click was almost audible when they finally fell into place. "Oh! Summer camp." He smiled a little. "I had no idea the Jaffa had summer camp, Teal'c. When I was a kid I'd go to Lake Okeebagoachee Camp in Minnesota-"

"This is formal training, O'Neill," Teal'c said, the disdain clear on his face. "It is not a recreational activity. They learn to handle a staff weapon and zat'ni'katels. They learn survival skills in the forests of Chulak."

Jack looked to Carter who was trying to stifle her own grin.

"Right, summer camp," he insisted.

"I do not believe it to be the same, as your 'summer camp,' O'Neill."

Jack couldn't help himself. He sat up straight and tried to hide his smile. "Right. Totally different. I can see that."

This time Carter actually put her head down and he could see her shoulders shake a little bit.

"As I was saying," Teal'c soldiered on, "on Chulak there was a legend about a Jaffa known for his fighting prowess, named Peht'tah. This legend was told to children on the eve of their Pri'vene."

"So, a bedtime story for the kids then?"

Carter laughed, but Teal'c just turned his head, his mouth set in an irritated line.

"If you do not wish to hear the story, O'Neill, perhaps you should tell one of your tales of Homer Simpson."

Jack had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing as well. He was about to apologize, to smooth things over when Daniel jumped up off the log. "You can't just let them die, Jack! Blowing up their ship isn't going to solve the problem!"

Carter was on her feet right after him, gaping at Daniel, who was staring at something only he seemed to see.

"You just don't get it, do you Jack?! They aren't a threat to us. Let me talk to them at least!"

Jack's chest tightened and he was at a loss for what to do. They all stared at Daniel, and Jack felt rooted to the spot.

"You never get it!" Daniel yelled and then stalked off in the direction of the cave. Jack looked at Teal'c whose face and concern were heavily shadowed by the flickering fire. Only Carter seemed to know what to do. She crossed to their packs, flipped on a flashlight and rooted around until she found the med kit. Then she pulled a thermometer out, looking back at Jack hopelessly.

It was something anyway. He nodded and both he and Teal'c followed her into the cave where Daniel was pacing in a state of agitation, kicking roots and vines out of his way. Carter approached him cautiously, carefully reaching a hand out to touch his arm.

"Daniel, can I take your temperature?"

"It's not going to make any difference, Sam. He just doesn't listen to reason. You know he always just overrules you because he outranks you."

"I know Daniel, but maybe we could just sit and talk about it."

Jack felt a lump in his chest tightening even further. He knew that in all likelihood Daniel had no idea what he was saying and he had no idea what was going on in Daniel's world at the moment, but it upset him that Daniel's delusions apparently involved their disagreements. It took some willpower not to argue back with him.

Sam succeeded in coaxing Daniel to the floor of the cave, his back against the slimy green wall. "I'm just going to take your temperature, okay?"

He didn't respond but Jack didn't like the completely vacant look in his eyes. He glanced at Teal'c and they moved closer.

Carter held the thermometer towards Daniel. "No! Don't kill her! Stop!" he yelled, slapping and flailing with his right arm, catching Carter's hand and sending the thermometer flying. He managed to swipe Carter in the face, hitting her hard enough to send her head reeling to the side. Before they could react, Daniel was to his feet screaming. "You can't kill them!" Carter managed to back pedal away and Teal'c lunged forward, catching Daniel's raised hand and pinning him back against the cave wall. "Do not, Daniel Jackson," he said with deadly vehemence.

Jack squatted down to take a look at Carter's face. She had a small cut and what was sure to be a bruise, but nothing more. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yes. But Daniel's not."

They stared in horror at him, pinned to the wall, his eyes wild and angry, flailing against Teal'c's weight.

---

Jack hated to use the large zip ties in their pack. They'd long ago been added because Carter said almost anything could be fixed with zip ties and duct tape. Of course that was before they started needing to repair crystals. Jack knew that various police departments used something similar to zip ties as plastic cuffs so he figured they were a good dual use addition to their packs. They'd had occasion to use them in the past, but never on a member of their own team. Unfortunately, Daniel was the first -- his hands bound behind his back.

Jack hated to do it, but Daniel had quickly become a danger to all of them as well as himself. He was completely delusional. Occasionally he seemed to take in something from the real world, but mostly he seemed to be living completely in some narrative of his mind's making. Jack sat on the floor of the cave watching Daniel's eyes flit back and forth, his body trying to pace even though he was stuck on the floor. Jack sat with his back to the cave wall, feeling the creepy crawliness of the moss and lichen growing there. His gun was resting against the wall next to him. And he just didn't know what to do. There was nowhere to go for help, there was nothing he could offer them. Daniel probably only had a little bit of time and there was no way they could help him. Earth was gone, the Alpha Site was gone, and he had no way of contacting Thor or Jacob. He was out of options. If he had something, anything to try, he'd be doing everything in his power to get them help, but there was no help to be had. So he watched and listened powerlessly.

"How can you follow him, Teal'c!? He shoots first and asks questions later! I know he saved your life but look at everything else he's done!"

Jack let out a frustrated sigh. Yeah, he shot first, but only when he had to. Someone had to save their asses and he was the one who took that responsibility. Daniel had no idea what that meant sometimes.

Jack glanced up when he heard soft footsteps against the wet floor. Carter came through the entrance, stepping into the ring of light from a lantern they'd long ago gotten from the Alpha Site.

"He doesn't mean it, you know," she said softly. She rested her P-90 against the wall with his and then sank down next to him.

"We've had this fight. With that robot that created the Replicators. Reese. He does mean it."

"Sir, he's completely delusional. You have no idea what he's seeing or hearing."

She touched his arm and Jack lowered his eyes and picked at the leather strap he wore on his wrist.

"He respects you. Even though you have different perspectives. And as much as that frustrates him sometimes..."

Jack snorted.

"As much as it frustrates him sometimes, he's learned to see things from a different point of view over the years. And with all due respect, sir, so have you. I know he respects you and admires you too. Don't listen to his ranting. That's not how he feels."

Jack sighed, thinking that at least part of Daniel had to be thinking or feeling it for his mind to create a scenario around it. But for all he knew this Daniel was stuck in some part of their past somewhere.

"Sam, stop him!"

They both tried to ignore him but Carter swallowed uncomfortably. She looked away, toward the entrance to the cave. "It's my turn on watch, sir."

"It's okay, I've got it."

"Colonel, you should sleep." She crossed her arms over the tops of her knees. "We should all make sure we get enough sleep."

Jack nodded slowly, knowing that what she was really saying what that they had to do everything in their power to keep up their immunity. He looked at the huddled, handcuffed husk that was Daniel. He was rocking slowly forward and back, shaking at the same time. Jack sighed and tried to put Daniel out of his mind, tried to leave him here in this cave, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep.

-----------------  
To Be Continued


	4. Chapter 4

Jack had managed to dose fitfully, but something jarred him awake. It took him a second to realize what it was. He'd heard someone scream -- Daniel scream. He threw off the blanket, grabbed his P-90 and ran into the cave. Carter and Teal'c were already there, standing over him, watching, both obviously horrified.

Jack looked down to see Daniel writhing and contorting, his bound hands underneath him. Most of what he was screaming and yelling was nonsense but occasionally Jack heard things that made him think that in whatever story his mind had concocted, he was being tortured. The scene seemed strangely frozen but his arrival seemed to free them from indecision. Teal'c knelt and shook Daniel's shoulder.

"Daniel Jackson, it is Teal'c. Can you hear me?"

There was no response, nothing.

"Daniel Jackson, it is all in your mind. You must fight this disease."

Sam left the cave and came back with some sort of kit and another pack. She caught Jack's eye. "This might help. It's diazepam. Valium." She gestured with a plastic pouch that contained an auto-injector.

Jack recognized it as part of their chemical weapon antidote kit. He knew that Carter had asked the Alpha Site for what medical kits and supplies they could spare, but he'd left it to her to take stock of what they had.

She held up the pouch and shrugged helplessly. "Given the situation…"

Jack nodded. Maybe it would at least stop the screaming.

Carter set down the other pack she was carrying and got out a pair of plastic gloves. Teal'c held Daniel steady so that she could administer the injection. For a few moments it seemed to do nothing and then Daniel's eyes got slightly more glassy and unfocused. His ranting became less coherent and his head slumped forward.

"I will stay and relieve you, Major Carter," Teal'c said standing again.

"Thank you, Teal'c." The exhaustion in Carter's voice was obvious. Her shoulders were slumped and she looked incredibly careworn. Jack led the way out of the cave and picked up a few pieces of wood. He tossed them on the fire to build it up against the morning chill that seemed to be part of this planet's calling card. Carter sank to the ground, using the log behind her has a back rest. She looked beaten.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked, rearranging some of the logs on the edge of the fire, quickly pulling his hand back to avoid the shower of sparks.

She just looked at him.

"Dumb question. Right."

"It's just that I don't know what to do, sir. We're stuck here and Daniel's sick and there's nothing we can do to help him. It's so frustrating!" Tears were shining in her eyes. "He's going to die and we're just going to sit here and watch it happen."

Jack joined her on the rocky ground. "We don't know that he's going to die. You said that the disease wasn't a hundred percent fatal."

She closed her eyes and sighed. "In the local population it has an eighty percent mortality rate. But we have no idea if or how that relates to us. We're from a divergent gene pool. It's possible it could affect us less but chances are we're likely to have less immunity because we haven't been living under the stress of the plague. We haven't had natural selection to help shape the course of our mutations in a way that favors immunity to the plague. There's just no way to know."

Jack had only one thing to hold onto. He didn't know if it would help, but it was worth offering. "Daniel's always been exceptional. Especially when it comes to cheating death. If any one of us would be in that twenty percent, it would be him."

She smiled weakly.

Yeah, he wasn't sure he really bought it either.

---

It was just before the highpoint of this planet's day when Teal'c yelled, "O'Neill!" from the cave. Both he and Carter were on their feet instantly. They bolted into the cool gloom to find Daniel quiet but slumped over. It took a minute before they noticed the steady flow of blood that was staining his face and dripping down onto his t-shirt, creating a slick wet pool in the cotton.

Jack ran a hand over his head. They knew this was coming, but seeing it was still a kick in the stomach. Carter rummaged in the pack, pulling out a towel and a pair of gloves. "Carter, no!" more sharply than he meant to.

"Sir, we have to try to stop the bleeding."

"I know. I'll do it." He took the towel and gloves from her and she stared back at him, reluctantly giving it up.

"O'Neill..."

"Out. Both of you. I'll take care of it." When they didn't move, he added, "That's an order."

It was his responsibility, they were his team. He couldn't do much for them anymore, but he'd protect them as much as he could.

"Sir, try not to get any of it on you."

He gave her an 'I'm not an idiot' glare and they reluctantly left the cave.

Jack snapped on the gloves, folded up the towel, and made himself comfortable on the floor next to Daniel. He wiped the blood off Daniel's face as best he could, using as little of the towel as possible. He tried to wipe the rust brown stains away from his lips and chin and along his cheek. The blood was still flowing from his nose, but it somehow didn't seem as bad as it had when Jack first came into the cave. Daniel was mostly quiet now. His eyes darted back and forth and his brow was glistening with sweat, but he'd stopped yelling. Of course he'd also stopped doing any of the things that made him Daniel too. Jack wondered if the man he cared about was still in there anywhere or if insanity had overtaken him completely.

Jack rearranged the fold in the towel to give himself a clean section to work with. Then he carefully pinched just below the bridge of Daniel's nose, hoping that would help stem the tide. This wasn't a nose bleed, so he had no idea if what he was doing was going to be helpful in any way. But Carter was right, they wanted to give him every chance of surviving and slowing the bleeding would be essential to that.

"Well, Danny-boy, this is a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into this time, isn't it?" he said, slowly moving his hand to the side to see if he was having any effect on the blood. Not so far anyway.

Daniel shuddered and his hands started to shake in addition to the wild movements of his eyes. Jack put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. He flinched slightly and it gave Jack hope that he hadn't completely left the building.

Jack pulled back the towel and the blood from Daniel's nose had stopped. He wiped down Daniel's brow first and then dabbed away the rest of the blood. "Hang in there Daniel, okay?" Jack leaned back on his heels and then sat back against the wall of the cave. "I don't think I can watch you die again," he whispered.

---

"See, the thing is, Daniel, it's not that I don't see where you're coming from. It's not that I wouldn't prefer to study every cultural curiosity we come across. Well, by study, I really mean, let _you_ study. Preferably when I'm back on Earth relaxing at home with a beer. It's not that I wouldn't prefer to ask questions first and shoot when we really had a good idea what was going on, but the real world doesn't work that way. Someone has to be looking out for the threat. Someone has to keep in mind that anything we find could potentially destroy Earth. Someone has to -- had to -- keep that in mind. And Daniel, that was my _duty_. I know you don't like it, but Earth came first."

Jack picked a piece of vine from a nearby plant and tossed it. "I'll grant you, something of a moot point now, but that's why I couldn't just let things go because you wanted to study them more." Jack tipped his head back against the wall. "It was never that I didn't respect you. I do. We just have different jobs to do and sometimes those jobs and philosophies crash into each other head on. I'm sorry for the times I didn't handle that very well." Jack closed his eyes. "And I'm sorry I'm not very good at saying these sorts of things to someone who's really conscious. But I kind of figure you know."

A sound caught his attention, liquid dripping against a leaf, which wasn't uncommon in the cave, but it was coming from right in front of him. Jack opened his eyes expecting to see another stream of blood from Daniel's nose, but it was clean. It took him a minute but then he saw the delicate line of red trailing down Daniel's left ear lobe.

"Okay. I'll try not to take that as an insult, Daniel. I'm talking so much I'm making your ears bleed? Nice way to make a point." He said it looking up, half wondering if Daniel wasn't on his way to ascending again, hovering over his old body and making it do tricks just to have a good laugh at Jack's expense. Not that he didn't have it coming.

But Daniel wasn't ascended, his body wasn't dead.

At least not yet.

Jack hauled himself to his feet and went to the cave entrance. He squinted against the alien sun and then joined Carter and Teal'c outside. They were sitting next to each other silently, Carter cleaning fish and Teal'c stripping a branch to use to cook them. They both turned to look at him, fear coloring their expressions.

"So how do I stop bleeding from an ear?"

Carter's hands dropped a little bit, the knife and fish lowering between her legs as her elbows came to rest on her knees. She sighed. "You don't."

"Didn't think so," he said quietly.

"We should probably try to get him to drink some water," Carter said. "If he won't, we need to start an IV."

Carter scooped up Daniel's canteen towel and Jack and Teal'c followed her into the cave. Daniel was twisting against the zip ties, his head resting in a nest of vines next to him. Jack knelt and lifted his head. He almost thought for a minute that Daniel's eyes focused on him but just as quickly they were back to lolling aimlessly. "Daniel, we need you to drink some water."

No response.

Jack glanced over his shoulder at the rest of his team. Then he attempted to open Daniel's mouth. At first Daniel fought it, mumbling incoherently and moving his neck from side to side. Then finally, Jack was able to pull his lower jaw down a bit.

Bloody saliva drooled over Jack's gloved hand. Carter wet the towel with water from the canteen and handed it to Jack. He tipped Daniel's head back slightly and dripped in a small amount of water. Daniel jerked away and then sputtered and spit out the water and pinkish salvia. Jack felt the spray on his arms. He got up and took a step back.

"Forget it, sir. I'll start the IV," Carter said. "But we should probably lay him down and turn him on his side so he's not swallowing blood."

Jack put his arm around Daniel's shoulder and pulled him forward, mindful of the fact that Daniel wasn't really holding his head up. He carefully guided him to the ground and arranged him on his side. His mouth fell slack and there were small rivulets of blood from his mouth, ears and nose.

Carter prepped the IV while Jack and Teal'c held Daniel firmly for her. She was able to get the needle properly placed the first try and hooked up the bag. When Jack reached to take it, Carter shook her head.

"You should wash up, sir." she said softly.

"I will stay with Daniel Jackson."

"Thank you, Teal'c."

He nodded solemnly, taking the saline bag and holding it up. Jack and Carter headed out into the sun again. Jack pulled off the gloves carefully and walked the few paces to the area where they'd been burying them. After covering the hole, he plodded down the slope. "Grab the soap out of my pack, would you, Carter?"

He heard her rustling and then listened to her trot to catch up.

"Sir, I'm guessing that the virus needs contact with a mucous membrane to get into the body. Or a cut or scratch of some kind."

He turned and shot her an eyebrow. His arms were always a mess of nicks and cuts from tromping through the forests here or carrying fire wood.

"Sir, I'm sure it's not-"

"Carter, just stop," he said, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

"Yes, sir."

He knew it was contagious, he knew he'd been exposed, but they all had. It was wishful thinking to believe that the rest of them weren't eventually going to be exactly where Daniel was now. It was just a matter of time.

They reached the river and Jack waded in, knee deep. "Are you sure we should be contaminating our water supply?"

"I'm not sure of anything, but I think if it were water borne, the spread would be farther each time the plague reappeared and there would be a pattern of villages downstream becoming infected, which the data doesn't support. And we are using the purification tablets."

Jack let his hands fall into the cool water and watched as the red streamed away from his skin. "Throw me the soap, huh?"

Carter handed it to him, and he took it, carefully avoiding her out-stretched hand. Jack lathered up, rubbing each and every surface of his hands and arms, feeling the hair there get tacky with soap. Then he dunked and repeated the procedure. The stream was cold and his skin was wrinkled and blue before he was done. He finally backed away from the edge and stood. Carter handed him a packet. "Sanitizer from the med kit," she said.

Jack tore off the top of the packet and pushed the green liquid out onto his hands. It was most likely an exercise in futility, but he appreciated the thought.

They walked back up the hill together silently. It was an uncomfortable, awkward silence, but Jack didn't have any way of filling the weighty air between them.

---

They'd all moved to sitting in the cave. There was nothing more to do but watch him. They each took turns taking care of their other chores and then hurried back. No one mentioned why, it was painfully obvious to all of them.

Night was coming quickly and the temperature was dropping. Carter went out and got the sleeping bag that Daniel had been using. She looked at Jack before settling it on Daniel's shuddering body. She arranged it so that the edges wouldn't trail in the pools of blood under him, but it wasn't long before the fabric was picking up deep crimson rosettes anyway.

A few hours after dark, Daniel started moaning. Then rather suddenly he started struggling to get up.

"Daniel?" Carter asked.

He didn't respond, just started keening and speaking incoherently as he struggled. He managed to get to his knees before he started screaming. It was the same inhuman shriek that they'd heard from the villager who had invaded their camp those first few days.

"What do we do?" Carter asked looking back and forth between Teal'c and Jack.

Jack didn't know, but he could feel the weight of Teal'c's eyes on him and suspected that they were thinking along the same lines, wondering how far they should let this go. But he wouldn't do that. Not to Daniel. Not because he thought it was wrong. He'd want someone to put him out of his misery if he was that far gone, but he suspected that Daniel would not. Daniel valued life too much and he never gave up on it. Jack could, and would, respect that.

"We cannot allow him to get to his feet," Teal'c said.

Daniel let out another shriek and tried. Teal'c grabbed his staff weapon and turned it sideways, using it to pin Daniel against the vines while Jack went for more zip ties. He snaked one around each of Daniel's upper arms and then through the vines running up the cave wall, securing him. Daniel writhed and twisted and screamed. When Jack was finished, he and Teal'c stepped back. Jack didn't know what to do now. He cringed at the next wild yell, backing away involuntarily. They all shrunk away from Daniel, shrunk into the shadows of the vines and ferns, waiting.

---

It wasn't long. It wasn't long before Daniel finally stopped the shrieking and fell back against the vines, his head limp. His eyes were still open and still tracking back and forth, unseeing, but his face had gone a grotesque shade of gray with blotches of purple from blood pooling under the skin. He was oozing blood at a frightening rate and Jack couldn't believe that he hadn't bled out already. His face was smeared, his hair matted with it, his clothes solid with stains. He looked like a monster in their midst and Jack had to fight his sense of revulsion to stay in that cave. He wanted to get as far away from that creature as he could. It wasn't Daniel anymore. Daniel was gone and Jack was certain at this point they weren't going to get him back.

Dawn was breaking and none of them had slept. The strain was written all over Carter's face and even Teal'c's practiced calm had slipped. The pain crinkled his eyes and caused the corners of his mouth to turn down.

Daniel picked his head up a little bit and for the hundredth time, Jack went to go check his pulse. It was still rapid and light, racing to try to keep his body alive. Daniel always did have too much heart -- in so many ways. Jack dropped his hand and backed away again, finding the spot he had worn in the moss.

It was a lot quieter than he was expecting. After the outburst overnight, Jack was expecting something profound. Something horrible. But Daniel just slipped away, almost as subtly as he had first started to show symptoms. His head lolled and his eyes widened. Then his body sighed and his eyes stopped their restless movements. Carter was on her feet instantly. "Daniel?"

Jack grabbed her jacket, pulling her to a stop. Then he approached slowly, picking up Daniel's wrist again. He felt in several different places, letting his thumb roam over Daniel's still warm skin. But there was nothing.

Jack slowly shook his head and heard Carter take in a sharp breath. He turned in time to see Teal'c's head sink toward his chest.

Jack closed his eyes and slowly dropped to the cave floor. Daniel, the man who had pulled Jack back from the brink during the most horrible time in his life had now crossed it himself. This time most likely for good. Jack kept his eyes closed, warring with his own emotions, fighting the way his body wanted to react.

---

Jack lifted his end of the blanket covered bundle, feeling as though it weighed a lot more than it should. He had Daniel's head, Teal'c had his feet. Carefully, slowly, they started down the steep slope.

For a while anyway, they had had a purpose again. They had gone in search of a place. They couldn't let Daniel's body stay near camp for a multitude of reason, the most obvious being that it was a danger to them. No one said it, but they all knew they didn't have a place to call home besides this planet. There was nowhere to return his body, so they would have to lay it to rest here.

They quickly decided on the bottom of the slope near where the stream wandered by. It was peaceful and pretty and Jack figured that if Daniel couldn't have his body taken home, he would probably approve.

Teal'c dug the grave by hand. The soil was rich, dark, and loose. Jack and Carter had helped, but Teal'c had worked himself nearly to exhaustion making a suitably deep grave.

Jack had used his knife to cut and then clean the bark from two branches. He used some of the omnipresent vines to wrap the shorter branch across the longer one, forming a crude cross to mark his grave. Jack didn't know much about Daniel's personal faith, but he decided that Daniel would appreciate the ceremony of marking a grave. Jack was sure it would appeal to the archeologist in him, if not speak directly to a faith.

And he couldn't bear to leave Daniel's grave unmarked. Even if no one was ever there to see it, Jack needed to make sure they left some evidence that Daniel had people who cared about him.

The bundle felt heavier with each step in a way that was not just physical weight. Jack felt like he was carrying his own failure down the slope with them. His heart was heavy and his legs were struggling under the burden of holding everything up.

They reached the hole and carefully lowered Daniel's body into it, careful not to let it drop. When the vessel that had housed the soul of Daniel Jackson was safely resting in the bottom of the grave, Jack cleared his throat and they all slowly picked up a handful of dirt. Jack opened his hand over the grave and watched the dirt fall. Carter and Teal'c followed suit. Then they each helped move the rest of the dirt back into the grave, slowly filling it in. When they finally had a smooth mound of black earth, Jack took the cross and sank it into the disturbed ground near the head of the grave. He had no words. It felt like another failure on his part because words were so important to Daniel. He looked up hopelessly at Teal'c and Carter. Teal'c was standing ramrod straight, his skin looking a little pasty. Carter's eyes were puffy and red and her breathing was coming in soft hitches. Jack folded her into a hug, fighting the feeling that his throat was closing. A few seconds later, Teal'c's arm was around his shoulder, hugging them both. The three of them clung together as the sun started setting.

It wasn't the kind of eulogy that Daniel might have wanted, but Jack hoped he'd understand. There were only the three of them to hear it, and they all had what was in their hearts. Daniel was the keeper of their words and he was gone.

He'd taken the words with him.

-----------------  
To Be Continued


	5. Chapter 5

Camp was quiet. Quiet and mourning, but with a growing sense of the slightest hope. A couple of days had passed and Jack was starting to think that maybe they were in the clear. Maybe the three of them had somehow avoided getting sick. Carter was even starting to theorize that maybe since all three of them had had Goa'uld symbiotes in one fashion or another, maybe they had some extra immunity that Daniel didn't have.

It was something to hold onto anyway.

But things were still tense, silent. There wasn't enough to do. There weren't enough ways for Jack to keep busy. He and Teal'c had caught a days worth of food, but of course there was no way to keep the meat cold, so there was no point in trying to catch more. Over the last two days, Teal'c had collected enough firewood to keep them in business for a week. Carter had been the most quiet, sitting on the log and staring into the fire.

Jack was trying to respect her space, but he couldn't take the silence anymore. He sat on the log next to her and across the fire from Teal'c.

"You know what I miss most about Earth?" he asked.

Both Carter and Teal'c looked at him.

"Guess."

They were both quiet for a moment. "Your cabin?" Carter asked, her voice uncertain.

"Nope. Plenty of fish here. Fishing sort of loses its appeal when you have to do it to get by."

"Your telescope?" she ventured and Jack knew that he'd piqued her curiosity.

"Nope. I can live without."

"Beer," Teal'c said drolly from the spot across the fire.

Jack clapped his hands together once and pointed to him. "Ding, ding, ding. The Jaffa wins a prize!"

"Beer?" Carter asked, but there was the barest hint of a smile on her face.

"Come on, tell me you wouldn't love to have a cold one right now."

Carter gave a shrug of agreement. "I can't argue that."

"So what do you miss most?" he asked her, impressing on her with his eyes that he knew what they all missed the most, but he was not looking for the sad, truthful answer right now.

She obviously got it because she looked suddenly very rueful. "My bike. And my car."

"I may have to rethink my answer. I didn't think about my truck. Thinking, thinking… Nope, beer still wins. But you're right, Carter, you had sweet rides." He turned again to look at Teal'c. "What about you, T? What do you miss about Earth?"

"My Star Wars DVDs."

It made both Jack and Carter smile. And it felt good, if only for a few minutes, to smile.

"I will not, however, miss the three movies that purported to be Star Wars prequels. They were unworthy of the Star Wars name."

Jack got up and grabbed his hat to go collect some fruits or greens for dinner. He clapped Teal'c on the shoulder. "Forget them, big guy. They may as well have never existed."

And for all practical purposes, they didn't.

---

Jack had managed to find some of the berries that Daniel had been fond of. They hadn't gone looking for them since he'd gotten sick, but they needed something in their diet besides meat. He also managed to find more of a local root variety that wasn't too far off from a potato. It was a little bit tougher than he'd prefer but overall they were edible.

He made the quick trek back to camp feeling pleased with himself for having an overflowing hat and roots in both hands. Carter was sitting in the same spot still mesmerized by the fire.

"Hey, Carter, mind giving me a hand with these?"

She didn't even look up.

Jack set down his load and quickly crossed the camp to kneel next to her. "Carter?"

He passed his hand in front of her face and finally, after much too long, she snapped out of it and turned to look at him. "Yes, sir?"

"You okay?"

"Yes. I was just thinking." She looked sincere and sincerely confused, but the hair on the back of Jack's neck stood at attention. Carter certainly got involved in her thoughts, but not to the point where she wasn't actually aware of her surroundings.

It crashed down over him. God, not her too. Not when things were looking okay. Jack tried to get a handle on himself. He didn't know that anything was really wrong, it was just suspicious. And she seemed okay, smiling weakly at him and radiating confusion. He wanted to believe she was fine.

"I'm alright, sir, really."

He stood up again. "Okay."

He went to retrieve the food for dinner as Teal'c emerged from the cave. Teal'c caught his eye and Jack nearly stumbled under the weight of that look. He knew instantly that Carter hadn't just spaced out once. "Teal'c have you seen my knife? I left it somewhere."

"It is in the cave, O'Neill."

Jack followed him. He turned to glance at Carter before slipping inside and caught her looking suspiciously in their direction. More suspiciously than he would expect from her.

"O'Neill, I believe that Major Cater is ill," he said gravely, his voice low.

Jacked closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She was just staring into the fire and didn't hear me when I asked her a question."

"I have seen that as well. She has also questioned why I would want to get the water. She did not accuse me of anything, but her tone of voice suggested that she feared I was tampering with our water supply."

Jack let his shoulders sag against the wall of the cave, ignoring the ick of the slimy vines against his t-shirt.

"Maybe she's just having an off day?" he suggested with his eyes closed. He opened them to see Teal'c's eyebrow raising its own suspicions. "Yeah, I don't really believe that either."

He pushed himself away from the wall. "There's nothing we can do now but keep an eye on her."

---

The wait wasn't long. She woke Jack up the next morning.

"No. The wormhole isn't bidirectional, it only allows travel one way," Carter muttered, still in her sleeping bag. Then she sat up suddenly. "No! You can't do that!"

Jack bolted out of bed. "Carter?"

Her eyes were twitching this way and that, completely unseeing. Jack swallowed hard and then backed away from her. He couldn't do this again. He couldn't sit and watch her die like Daniel. They'd tried the wait and hope approach with him and it hadn't worked. He couldn't do that again. Not with Carter.

Jack yanked on his boots, picked up his P-90, set his jaw, and tromped down the slope into the woods. He heard Teal'c call his name but he ignored it. Soon he was at a jog and then an all out run. He broke into the gate clearing feeling frantic. He reached the DHD and started pounding the symbols for Earth. Then he slammed the center crystal. Nothing! He did it again, beating the address into the DHD. Still nothing, dammit! He dialed the Alpha Site and slammed his fists into the DHD willing it to just _work_!

He took a step back thoroughly frustrated. The Tok'ra! He'd call the Tok'ra and maybe they'd have a cure by now! Something. Anything other than sitting here and watching his team die around him. He started punching in the first gate address he could remember. He must not have gotten it right, because the gate spun but didn't lock the last chevon. "Come! On!" he yelled, stabbing at the symbols again.

A hand fell onto his shoulder. "O'Neill," Teal'c said, firmly.

"I have to try _something_!"

"Indeed. But Earth is gone, O'Neill."

"I know that! Maybe the Tok'ra."

"Do you know how to find them?"

"No. But I can at least try, dammit!"

"Jacob Carter said they would contact us."

Jack laughed bitterly. "Don't call us, we'll call you."

"Perhaps if he knew."

Some of the anger fell away. "If Jacob knew about Sam..."

"Perhaps they would work faster."

"Yeah." Jack let out a sigh. He stepped away from the DHD, suddenly realizing that he was exhausted. Over tired. Over worn. "We owe it to Jacob to try to get word to him that his daughter is dying, Teal'c."

"I will attempt to contact them."

Jack wanted to argue. He wanted to stay and punch every symbol over and over until they found the Tok'ra. But in all likelihood, he'd never find them in his lifetime -- however long that might be.

"Yeah, okay. You probably remember more gate addresses than I do anyway."

He gave Jack's shoulder a squeeze and then stepped back. "One of us should stay at camp with Major Carter."

"I'll take care of her. Just find them, please."

---

The sun was setting slowly, and Jack chucked another log onto the fire. It was getting cold but he didn't want to move. Sam – there was really no point in continuing to call her Carter -- was lying on the ground on her side. He was cradling her head in his lap, her face turned away from him, toward the fire. He was grateful not to have to look at her wild eyes. She was past the point where she was saying anything, but her eyes were just as bad. Jack was slowly stroking her soft blonde hair. He was filled with such heaviness and all he could think was _I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry…_

Teal'c appeared at the edge of camp. Jack hadn't even heard him coming. Part of him jumped, feeling caught in the act. It was the part of him that still wanted to call her Carter and still clung to the rules and regulations. It was dying faster than Sam was.

And Teal'c had known for years now anyway. He was one of only two people from the SGC who'd been in that room all those years ago. One of only two who'd heard their confessions under the za'tarc machine. He'd never brought it up after that and had never even hinted at knowing about their feelings for each other. Jack had never really told him how much he appreciated that.

"I could not find the Tok'ra, O'Neill," he said, sitting down on the log across from the two of them. "I have attempted to dial every gate address I can recall."

Jack nodded slowly, avoiding his friend's eyes. "Thank you, Teal'c."

He saw Teal'c's nod in his peripheral vision but he focused on the soft yellow of Sam's hair instead, trying not to think about anything.

"I am sorry, O'Neill."

Jack tried to smile but knew it was coming out as a grimace. "I am too, Teal'c."

"This is not your doing."

"No." But he was responsible. He was supposed to protect them. He was supposed to bring them all home. But there wasn't even a home to bring them back to anymore.

"Then you have nothing to feel guilty about, O'Neill."

He nodded to appease his friend, not feeling any better. He just didn't want her to have to die like this. He didn't want any of them to die like this.

Teal'c tended the fire and made them dinner which Jack barely touched. He brought them water and they were able to get Sam to drink which was at least a little bit encouraging. He did all the work to allow Jack to sit with Sam. She was quiet most of the evening, and Jack was grateful that she hadn't been as visibly disturbed as Daniel had been. But then he wasn't looking at her eyes much. He still couldn't deal with the pain and fear there.

By morning the bleeding had started. Overnight it had created horrible little streams down her cheek, coloring the tips of her hair and sinking into the fabric of Jack's BDUs.

"Teal'c?" Jack called, hearing him moving in the cave.

He appeared, his eyes widening at the sight of the blood pooling around Jack's legs.

"Could you get me a t-shirt out of Daniel's pack?" Jack turned Sam's head a little and realized that she was bleeding from her eyes too – red, bloody tears. It closed off his throat almost completely. He needed to cough to get any air in. Then he gently wiped the red tears away with his bare fingertips.

"O'Neill. That is not wise."

Jack just looked at him. Did Teal'c honestly think he cared anymore? Did he honestly think they had any other fate in store for them other than to die the way Daniel had and Sam was about to?

Teal'c held his stare for a moment and then brought him the t-shirt.

Jack kept Sam's face as clean as he could. He dabbed at the pools that formed in her ear and tried to keep the blood out of her hair. Teal'c started the IV and they both waited.

---

She was screaming incoherently, and had thrown herself off Jack's lap. It was that shriek that split him in two each time. She looked nothing like the Sam he knew. Nothing. Her face was contorted and feral. He was lucky it had been dark when Daniel had gotten to this point so he hadn't had to see it clearly. Sam was a figure in horror – a figure that he knew used to be someone he cared about deeply and it tore him up to see her now.

She bolted away from him and Teal'c had to catch her. He restrained her in a tight bear hug from behind as she kicked and screamed. He picked her up off the ground and ducked into the cave, dragging her with him. Jack silently grabbed the zip ties and they sat her in the same place they'd restrained Daniel, tying her to the vines and resigning themselves to the fact that Major Samantha Carter was lost from this world.

---

Death came as simply as turning the lights out in her eyes. It was that simple and that awful. Jack watched her go, watched that light of hers wink out, and watched her body grow cold and quiet. He watched her head slowly slump forward under its own weight. He watched it all and then he got up and left. He walked out of the cave and walked down the slope to the stream. He just meant to clean his hands, splash some cold water on his face, but instead, he got to the bank and just kept going. He walked into the stream, boots and all. He waded out to the middle and watched the water swirl and eddy around his waist. He plunged his hands in and watched as the blood made little ripples around him.

He looked up to see Teal'c watching him from the bank, streaks of blood soiling his shirt and arms from having to restrain her.

Jack closed his eyes, feeling the cold creep up his body, feeling the discomfort of the wet water in his boots. He leaned into the current of the stream as it pulled against his body.

It was washing away the blood but it could not remove the stain.

---

They worked until after sun down. Teal'c did all of the digging this time. Jack just didn't have the strength anymore. They carried Sam down the slope and laid her next to Daniel. There was plenty of room in their family plot.

There were even fewer words this time and both he and Teal'c trudged back up the slope together. They didn't bother with dinner. Jack just stared at the fire as it burned through the fuel. They weren't hurting for wood or food or water. They had so many things, but not the things they really needed.

At some point Jack dosed off. When he woke it was pitch black and Teal'c was sitting on a cleared section of ground across from him, his eyes closed, sitting with his legs crossed and his hands resting palms up on his knees.

"I didn't think you did kel'no'reem anymore. Not after you lost Junior," Jack whispered, figuring Teal'c could ignore him if he chose.

"I do not kel'no'reem." He opened both eyes and gazed at Jack with a serene expression that Jack envied. "I am meditating."

"Any particular reason?"

"I feel the need." He closed his eyes. "It brings me peace."

Peace was definitely something Jack envied right now. He wished it were as simple as sitting cross-legged and humming. "Are you okay?"

"I am."

Jack got up quietly and grabbed his pack to bunch under his head. It wasn't a good pillow but it was better than nothing.

"They respected you, and appreciated your leadership. As do I. You have led us out of danger many times, O'Neill. There is nothing you could have done differently this time."

Jack bowed his head, grateful that Teal'c had his eyes closed. "Thanks, Teal'c."

---

When Jack woke in the morning Teal'c was gone. He had taken nothing -- even his staff weapon was left leaning against the cave wall -- but there was the air of permanence to the silence around camp. Jack knew without a doubt that he was gone. He'd made it clear in the beginning of this mess that if he got sick he'd leave and now he had.

Jack didn't bother to go looking for him. He understood that the decision was Teal'c's to make and it was one he respected. But the emptiness weighed on him nearly as much as carrying Sam and Daniel's bodies had. He brooded around camp for a while, doing the chores half-heartedly now that the only person he needed to provide for was himself.

That night it started to rain again. The sky opened up and poured down on Jack's little camp. There was thunder and lightening and hail. The torrents of water cut gouges in the hillside. It forced Jack to stay in the cave for shelter, which was quickly wearing on his nerves. He was fairly certain that if anyone would bother to haunt him it would be Daniel. Not only was the cave a perfect haunting kind of place with all the vines and dank dripping, but it fit perfectly into ghost lore by being the place where Daniel had taken his last breath.

Jack didn't want to stay there, but he didn't want to be soaked either. As soon as it stopped raining, he'd find himself another place to make camp. Somewhere away from the graves and the ghosts.

He slept fitfully that night. At one point he must have awoken from a horrible dream because he looked down and for a brief second saw a snake or long worm biting his forearm. He panicked and tried to brush it away, but there was nothing there. He wondered if this was the first stage of the disease, if this was the beginning of his end.

He lay there trying to force his mind to stop thinking and noticed there was an orangish light in the cave. He sat up and realized that Jacob Carter was standing at the entrance. It looked like he was talking, but Jack couldn't hear him. He blinked against the bright light and Jacob became hazier, indistinct, and then disappeared entirely.

---

As if there weren't enough things to hate on this planet, Jack seemed to be marooned in the monsoon season. The next morning the storms hadn't let up at all. Jack didn't want to try to start a fire in the cave itself, so he ate the potato-like vegetables and berries for breakfast and lunch. But sitting around with nothing to do was eating away at him. He couldn't figure out why he was bothering, but collecting firewood was better than staring at the walls.

He had a full armload of wood that he brought back into the cave along with the vines that made for good kindling. It would all have to dry before he could anything with it and he wasn't sure how long it would take for it to dry in this dank cave with it still raining outside.

Jack dumped the armload onto the floor and in a flash saw the snake on his arm again and felt something else squeeze his right bicep. Jack jumped back and flailed at his arms, sure there was something there, but when he calmed down enough to really look, there was nothing.

He sank down and leaned against the wall. He just wanted this to be over. He couldn't take cracking up. He'd lost his team, his whole planet, everyone he'd ever cared about. He didn't think he could just sit there and wait for death. Worse, he didn't think he could live out his life if he somehow didn't get the disease.

It was a relief that no one would be here to see him lose his mind, but the prospect scared him. Sam and Daniel had both seemed terrified in their hallucinations. He didn't want to die like that either.

Jack pulled out his pistol and looked at it. He wasn't ready for that yet, but it was always an option. And if he had an option then living was a choice.

It was a choice he was still strong enough to make.

At least for now.

---

He dreamed, or hallucinated about Jacob again. He was still in that orange light. He seemed to fade in and out, coming and going.

And sometimes he saw Daniel and Teal'c. They were standing in the background, not saying anything.

He half expected Daniel to try to talk him into ascension again. But maybe this time Daniel hadn't gone that route. Or maybe he just knew that Jack wasn't going to agree to it so there was no point trying.

---

He needed to eat something other than roots. What he really wanted was a cheeseburger off the grill in his backyard with a beer to wash it down, but apparently his grill was now just an ash or two in the smoking briquette that was Earth. So no cheeseburger. He wanted boar stew but Teal'c caught the boar and he was gone. Sam cooked the boar and she was gone too.

So he sat in the cold, wishing for things he knew he couldn't have.

He wondered what had happened to the Jack O'Neill -- two 'L's -- who had walked out of enemy territory in Iraq with a cracked scull and a whole lot of broken bones. He wasn't that man anymore. He was tired and beaten. He wanted this to end. He wanted Earth and his team to stop haunting him.

---

Jack wasn't sure what time it was anymore. With the endless drizzle, it was always dark and gloomy. He had no idea how many days he'd been on his own. He couldn't really muster the will to care. It had been as long as it had been.

He stared out of the cave entrance, watching the rain bounce off the stones in the ground. He watched the water collect into larger drops along the entrance and fall in a slower platter to the dirt below.

Jack closed his eyes, engaging in his new favorite hobby of dosing. When he opened them again, Jacob was standing there, just inside the cave, out of the rain.

"Hi, Jack."

"Jacob."

"How are you?"

"Been better."

"Hmmmm. I'd say so."

"You know, Jacob. Now really isn't a good time. I'd rather not have ghosts haunting me."

Jacob gave him a tight lipped smile. "I'm not a ghost, Jack."

"Nope. A figment of a disease addled brain. Ghost for short."

"I'm real, Jack. You have to start believing that."

"See, the thing is, real people don't have ghostly lights surrounding them."

Jacob smiled but it was starting to get darker in the cave. In the murk Jack could see that Jacob's lips were moving, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. Then slowly, Jacob faded away and Jack was alone again.

---

If he never saw rain again, he'd be happy. He wondered if there were a way to control his delusions, some way he could park himself on a beach covered with bikini-clad women, each carrying coolers of beer. If he was going to hallucinate, why couldn't he at least hallucinate something good?

The rain just kept coming, and the cave just kept feeling more and more repressive. He really wanted to go down to the graves, make sure they were deep enough, make sure the markers had survived any flash flooding down the slope. At the time it had seemed like the best place to bury them, but now he wasn't sure.

Jack wanted to be buried with them, to be a family even in death. He loved them like family, he loved them more than family, but there was no one left to bury him. And Teal'c was gone, so they would always be missing someone. There was no one to even perform a missing man formation for Teal'c either. Not that they would. Not without Jack pushing. Teal'c was too easily written off by the Air Force because he was an alien. Jack had always found himself defending his friend and making sure that people understood how important his contributions were to Earth.

Not that it mattered anymore.

None of it mattered.

And he had nothing left to do but sit in the rain and hallucinate.

---

Finally, a delusion worth having. Sam decided to pay him a visit. If he was going to be haunted, then at least he wanted to be haunted by a pretty blonde.

Jack watched as she sat across from him in the cave, not saying anything, just looking at him, her eyes big and sad and frightened.

"You make the best guardian angel, Sam," he said picking at his boot laces.

She didn't answer or say anything. She just watched him, her eyes filled with concern -- sometimes horror. Sometimes they looked the same way they had when she'd lain in his lap, her mind coming to pieces before her body finally gave out.

---

"God dammit!" Jack yelled, trying to scrape off the worm or snake or whatever the hell it was that kept latching onto his left arm. It drove him nuts, made him want to shoot his arm off. When he woke up it was there, but the minute he tried to brush it off or slap it dead, it was gone. It was clear and lethargic and very, very unsettling.

Again, if he was going to go mad, why couldn't he have the bikini women? Or maybe he could write himself in as a character on the Simpsons and live through episodes? Or maybe catching the fish of his life in that barren pond of his? There were so many good delusions he could be having, why the hell did this disease insist on giving him bad ones? Snakes on his arm, what _was_ that?!

He had taken to whittling to pass the time. He wasn't any good at it but he could take a perfectly good branch and cut it down to nothing with his knife. That part he had down. Toothpicks, no problem. Anything more useful than that was beyond him.

He was in the middle of cutting down another branch when she appeared again.

It was startling. Jacob had an orange halo whenever he was there, but Sam, Sam just looked like Sam. She walked into the cave, leaning on the doorway and asked if she could come in.

Oh why the hell not? He flipped the branch he was mutilating onto the ground next to him. "What would you like the talk about, Sam? Religion? Ascension? Oh, sorry that's Daniel. What about astrophysics or some other topic that will get on my nerves?"

She looked stricken. She looked like she was going to leave. And he really didn't want her to go. He was tired of sitting on this planet alone. "I'm sorry," he said, and then gestured with his hand for her to come in.

She came close to him and sat on a bundle of vines that crisscrossed the bottom of the cave. "How are you feeling?"

"Why does everyone ask me that?"

"It's kind of the standard question for..."

"For someone who's dying?"

"You aren't dying."

"Oh, delusions are nice, aren't they? Tell you what you want to hear."

She looked like she wanted to flee. He made a mental note to stop driving away the hallucinations that he wanted to have. He might end up with nothing but pink elephants if he wasn't careful.

"Sorry, it's just been a bad couple of days."

She nodded slowly.

He sighed. "Why are you here?"

"Because I care. We all do."

Jack nodded. "I noticed that Daniel didn't even try with the Ascension bit this time. That's good. "

"Sir?"

"I just mean that even if he was offering ascension, I wouldn't be interested. I plan to die like everyone else."

"Sir, why would Daniel be offering ascension?"

"Well, he did last time he was ascended and I was in a situation like this."

She looked down at her hands, and confusion spread across her features again. "He would have to be ascended to offer you help with ascending."

Jack closed his eyes. "Well, I guess I just assumed, him being dead and all, that he would have ascended again."

"Sir, Daniel's not dead."

"Of course he is," Jack said, getting angry. "Look, I don't mind you haunting me, but you don't get to play with my head. Daniel's dead and you're dead and Teal'c is either dead or well on his way. And I," he let out a deep and frustrated sigh. "I'm just waiting to be dead. Because I can't do this, Sam. I can't keep going knowing that you and Daniel and Teal'c are gone and I failed you. I failed to bring you home safely and now I have to sit here and live with that until this goddamn disease finally turns my brain into bleeding mush and kills me! And that is all I have to look forward to and that is something I just can't take anymore!"

He was shouting at her and she had closed her eyes to his onslaught. "Sir, please look around you."

He didn't. He wouldn't. He couldn't. It was too much to keep trying. Instead he just looked down at the strap around his wrist. He picked at the leather, wondering why the hell this couldn't just be over with.

"Sir, look around you," she said emphatically. "I'm not dead, and neither is Daniel or Teal'c. No one got sick, Colonel. No one, but you."

That froze him up completely. "What?" he breathed.

"No one got sick but you, Jack. You came down with the disease."

He stared down at his hands, trying to figure out what she was talking about and suddenly the snake was back. He pawed at it, only this time, it was suddenly clear. It wasn't a snake that was biting him; it was an IV in the crook of his arm. He closed his eyes and then slowly opened them. He looked up to see Sam – Carter -- staring down at him with worry and confusion swarming in her eyes. She took his hand to pull it away from the IV. "No one got sick but you, Colonel. Dr. Fraiser and my dad have been doing everything in their power to help you for days. But you have to want to come back."

And suddenly the walls of the cave dissolved. The reality he had lived and believed and fought bitterly against melted away before his eyes.

Jack found himself in a bed in the SGC's infirmary.

-----------  
Complete!


End file.
